“Ang Ospital” is a Filipino horror game made by students from Caloocan

Leave True Philippine Ghost Stories or shows like Nginig and Kakabakaba? by the nostalgia vault. This upcoming video game is here to be your latest nightmare fuel. And guess what? It’s a thesis project by student video game developers in Caloocan.

Made by Underdog Games from the University of Caloocan City – Computer Studies Department, Ang Ospital is a survival video game making rounds on Reddit and Facebook. Gamers on the Reddit thread have voiced out how similar it is to the game Outlast, a game where a freelance journalist explores the horrors of an abandoned hospital. But if we’re being frank, it’s also has a hot take on our public mental hospitals in the country.

The video game is set in the year 1920. It takes place at Bridgerough National Institute for Mental Health in Baguio, where they aim to help their patients facing mental illnesses get better. But the hospital shut down in 1979 after reports of abuse and neglect amongst their patients spread in media. In the game’s trailer, we see that they will touch on the topics of child abuse, medical malpractice, and much more.

As revealed by MIMS Today, there are only 700 psychiatrists and a thousand psychiatric nurses in the country. The government budget allotted for mental health isn’t that high either. “The funds set aside for mental health is a pittance – just five percent of the health department’s total annual budget,” they explain.

“Although there are mental health care facilities—both public and private—in the country, these are scant and poorly linked. The majority, however, are still within the National Capital Region, making accessibility a challenge for those in far-away places.”

These true horror stories on how the Philippines addresses mental health is the real nightmare fuel of the game. But if works like this can shed a light on how much mental health needs attention, then Ang Ospital is doing the Lord’s work even though the gameplay has scarred me for life.

Ang Ospital is still on beta-testing for now. But as Underdog Games revealed on Facebook, they will release the final stages of the game real soon. Here’s the gameplay if you want to see it for yourself. Trust us, it’s not for the faint heart.